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"Bike paths, it's a fact that they make communities a better place to live."
Sam Skinner, president of Beverly-Waterford Growth and Revitalization, couldn't be more right, as local residents who take advantage of other bike and walking paths in our communities can attest. It is a wonderful thing to be able to safely get out and enjoy nature in your own backyard.
With plans for a new multi-use trail in Beverly to be built this year, residents there should soon have the same opportunity.
A $1.2 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development's Appalachian Community Grant Program -- and support from the Village of Beverly, Ironton-Lawrence Community Action Organization and the Buckeye Hills Regional Council, among others -- will get things started. Phase one is expected to run from the bridge connecting Beverly and Waterford, to just past Fort Frye High and Beverly-Center Elementary schools.
But the aim is for the trail to grow.
"We hope to make it bigger ... but we've got to find the money," Skinner said.
That's where support from other organizations can make a difference.
The folks at the Ohio's Wonderful Waterways Initiative understood what a gem could be built in Beverly. Surely soon others will, too.